Nevertheless, after repeated trial and error the search at last ends successfully because the goal and attitude of heart are the right ones: “Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.” (Song of Songs 3:4). When finally the object of desire is attained, the seeker recognises its value, holds fast to it and brings it to a place of safety. The Bible consistently tells us that if we genuinely look for God, our search will not be in vain, no matter how spiritually desolate may be our starting point, nor how inept our seeking:
• Moses says it: “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4:29).
• King David says it: “If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9).
• King Solomon says it: “those who seek me find me.” (Proverbs 8:17).
• The prophets say it: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13).
• Jesus says it: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8).
The issue, then, is first and foremost whether we are seeking the right object with the right attitude, although obviously our search will be the quicker if we seek in the right way, in the right place, at the right time and by asking the right questions of the right people.
Goal.
Clearly, we will never find something if we do not look for it. Our society invests tremendous time and energy in seeking what is entirely illusory and even detrimental. Rampant addiction is merely one symptom of the desolation that follows. By contrast, the Song of Songs adjures us to avoid artificial stimulation, whether sexual or otherwise: “Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” (Song of Songs 3:5).
To find that for which all human beings really long in the deepest reaches of their hearts we need to lay aside all artificiality and illusion and to ensure that the aim of our desire is worthwhile. The goal of the seeker in the Song of Songs is described as “coming up from the desert like a column of smoke” (Song of Songs 3:6). The phrasing is reminiscent of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt, when “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light” (Exodus 13:21). In each case, the pillar of cloud or column of smoke is a visible symbol of God’s presence with his people, also symbolised by the things that were brought as gifts to Jesus at his birth by the wise men (see Matthew 2:11):
• Gold (together with purple and a crown) as a symbol of royalty: “King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon. Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was embroidered with purple, its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem. Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing his crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.” (Song of Songs 3:9-11).
• Frankincense as a symbol of worship, sacrifice and the priesthood: “incense made from all the spices of the merchant” (Song of Songs 3:6).
• Myrrh as a symbol of crucifixion and death: “perfumed with myrrh” (Song of Songs 3:6). As Jesus hung on the cross “they offered him wine mixed with myrrh [to relieve pain], but he did not take it.” (Mark 15:23). Myrrh was also applied to Jesus’ body after his death (see John 19:39-40).
The object of the seeker’s desire can thus be seen as a prototype of Jesus Christ “the desired of all nations” (Haggai 2:7). This same Jesus should be the goal of our search, for he is “the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through [him].” (John 14:6). There is no object more worthy of our search, no end more estimable, no person more perfect or beautiful.
Attainment.
When finally the object of desire is found, he brings with him the means to quiet the restless imaginings of the small hours: “sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.” (Song of Songs 3:7-8). In the same way, the Lord will enable us to resist the “terrors of the night” (Song of Songs 3:8), for “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7). Instead of things artificial or illusory, the Lord gives us “the fruit of the Spirit [which] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22). Of all gifts, these are amongst those most worth having. Indeed, God offers much more than this. He says: “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4), for his greatest gift is our salvation and, consequent on that, eternal life.
Salvation and the gifts of the Spirit are the very opposite of the results that come from our misplaced striving, as St Paul cautions his readers in Galatia: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:21). We pay a terrible price for our indulgence, excess and seeking after oblivion.
One of the tricks of the forces of darkness is to claim to offer good things. Satan never shows us the end result, but only a pleasurable beginning. Drug-taking is but one example. Nobody starts off with the aim of becoming a helpless addict. Nobody wants to live out their days in squalor and end them in misery. Nobody would take drugs if the experience were not at first enjoyable. Only over time does gratification wear thin and the physical and moral toll become apparent. Any man who imagines he can be a heavy long-term drug user without becoming a thief and any woman that she can doing so without prostituting herself is dreaming, but sadly many prefer fancies to confronting reality. As St Paul warned: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather round them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). We see in our own land the skewed set of values that results. We esteem things that are worthless and fail to treasure what is priceless. Unless and until we start to address this, we will continue to make disastrous choices.
Jesus told two parables to help us gain a proper sense of perspective. They teach that the kingdom of heaven is of such worth that people should be willing to give up all they have to gain it: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46). People regularly sell all they have, even their very bodies and souls, to gain their next fix. It is infinitely rarer to find those who sell their all to gain the kingdom of heaven. That is an appalling commentary on modern Britain. It is above all a stinging indictment of generations of Christians (ours most of all), who have succeeded in making the radical message of the gospel and the excitement of a life with Jesus appear boring, who have made being a Christian synonymous in many eyes with being a hypocrite and who have so trimmed and temporised that for many Christianity appears to be devoid of power and capable of being fitted into whatever mould we choose for it.
When it comes to seeking, we have much to do. We need to seek God’s forgiveness for what we have done with his church and with his gospel. We need to “Seek the LORD while he may be found [and] call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6).
Concl
usion.
The band The Verve sang: “the drugs don’t work.” Neither do any of the other foolish things that our nation currently chases after as though they be worthy of desire. It is time for us to be bolder in proclaiming that there is only one worthwhile object of human striving and only one person whom we should seek. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of the living God.
King Solomon “spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five” (1 Kings 4:32), but what he calls the “song of songs” (Song of Songs 1:1) is the one that surpasses all others. It is beautiful poetry, but much more besides. On one level it is a straightforward love story, involving a king who “loved many foreign women besides Pharoah’s daughter – Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites ... [who] had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines ...” (1 Kings 11:1 and 3). On another level it is something quite different, sacred rather than profane: an allegory of God’s love for his chosen people, Israel; of Christ’s love for his bride, the church (see Ephesians 5:22-23); and of Christ’s love for the soul of each and every human being.
This nation is drifting and our people are aimless, “like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd” (Zechariah 10:2). Many feel themselves without direction or hope. It need not be so. We need only seek and we will find. Over and over again the Lord has said it: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13). There is no cause to hang back through shame or misplaced pride. There is nothing wrong in acknowledging our need by turning our hearts to God and seeking his healing for our land and its people.
64. New landscape
Haggai 1.
Key word: rebuilding.
Recent years have seen the transformation of London with a series of iconic buildings by world-renowned British architects. The Lloyds Building, the Swiss Re building (the so-called Gherkin) and others use new materials and new design technologies in ways that were previously unimaginable. These eye-catching edifices have been mirrored across the country, not only in major public works and the headquarters of large corporations, but in modest homes and everyday shops and offices. The drab, drear offerings of the immediate post-war reconstruction boom, with its prefabs and ugly tower blocks, seem far removed from a style of architecture altogether more sympathetic to the human spirit, but which at the same time speaks of ambition and confidence.
In parallel with its celebration of the new, the nation has learnt to appreciate better the value of its old buildings and to fight for their upkeep. Of course, uninspired starter homes and shoddy estates still proliferate too widely, but there is a renewed appreciation that beauty and aesthetic appeal in our physical surroundings matter in ways that cannot be expressed simply in terms of monetary value.
We have seen a time of rebuilding.
Time.
The prophet Haggai, writing in about 520 BC, speaks God’s word at a time when there needs to be rebuilding in Israel. Eighteen years beforehand, after long years of waiting and expectation, Cyrus, king of Persia and conqueror of Babylon, had decreed that Jewish exiles should be allowed to return to their homeland. About 50,000 Jews made the journey. With rejoicing and enthusiasm they started to build a new temple in Jerusalem to replace the one destroyed during the Babylonian conquest. Soon, however, objections from Samaritans and other neighbouring peoples who feared the social, religious and political implications led to work being halted.
It remained stalled until Darius the Great came to the throne of Persia in 522 BC. Then God took a hand by means of his prophet “Haggai the LORD’s messenger” (Haggai 1:13). The words that Haggai speaks are addressed to God’s appointed leaders and through them to the people at large: “In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest” (Haggai 1:1).
Through Haggai, God says that the time has come to restart work. Excuses for further delay are brushed aside: “This is what the LORD Almighty says, ‘These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built’’ Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’” (Haggai 1:2-4). The clear implication is that it is not. There must be no more prevarication. Work must restart straightaway.
Things happen at the right moment and in the fullness of God’s timing. The Lord says that “At the appointed time I will return” (Romans 9:9, based on Genesis 18:10 and 14). In human affairs, too: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven ... a time to tear down and a time to build” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) and a “wise heart will know the proper time” (Ecclesiastes 8:5).
Location.
The Israel to which Haggai speaks is a place of outward prosperity. Indeed, there is such luxury that people are “living in ... panelled houses” (Haggai 1:4). Formerly, interior panelling was the preserve of royalty, whose dwellings were lined with cedar (see 1 Kings 7:3 and 7 and Jeremiah 22:14), but now it is widespread. Possessions do not bring real benefit, however. Just as in our nation, the very material wellbeing of the Israelites was a cause of sloth, slackness and spiritual laxity.
In words that could have been crafted with modern Britain in mind, the Lord urges people to reflect and consider: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it ... You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little.” (Haggai 1:5-6 and 9). There is consumption aplenty, but it does no good. Wealth runs through their fingers without lasting benefit. Momentary pleasures bring no fulfilment. They have little to show for their efforts.
This does not come about by chance, nor is it undeserved. It is a consequence of God’s just and righteous response to man’s actions: “‘What you brought home, I blew away. Why?’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labour of your hands.’” (Haggai 1:9-11). Our neglect of God and concentration on things material rather than spiritual bring the opposite of what we desire. They bring scarcity instead of abundance, alienation instead of possession and want instead of plenty. Our selfishness is bad for us.
This should give us pause. The description that we read in Haggai is not of a faraway place and a distant time. It is our own face in the mirror, right here and now.
Resources.
As always, God is good. He provides what is needful, if we will only look about us and apply ourselves properly to the task in hand: “‘Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,’ says the LORD.” (Haggai 1:7-8).
The issue is seldom a lack of resources. It certainly was not at this particular time and place. It was rather a question of priorities, desire and application:
• Priorities. The building materials that were needed were readily available. The Israelites had only to “go up into the mountains” (Haggai 1:8) to find timber. Indeed, they had timber in abundance but had used it for their own “panelled houses” (Haggai 1:4). They had simply set the wrong priorities.
• Desire. To get our priorities right, our desires need to be for the right things. Up till then, the Israelites had desired their own ease and comfort, preferring to build their houses rather than God’s. Now they are told to desire something different – that the Lord may “take pleasure in [his house] and be honoured.” (Haggai 1:8).
• Application. All that was needed on the part of the
Israelites was hard work. They needed to “go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build” (Haggai 1:8). There are three elements to this: accessing resources (“go up into the mountains”), bringing resources to where they are needed (“bring down timber”) and using resources for the task God wants us to accomplish (“build”).
The same holds good for us. We need to set the right priorities, desire the things that God wants and apply ourselves to his work. For this we need to access the resources that he supplies, bring those resources to where they are needed and use them to do the Lord’s work.
People.
There is an appointed time and place for our labour, and God will provide the resources we need for the tasks in hand. The last piece in the jigsaw concerns our own selves. We need to hear what God is saying and then to act accordingly: “Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.” (Haggai 1:12). The Israelites’ response shows what is needed:
• There must be wholesale engagement, as reflected in the words of Haggai 1:12 – engagement by the civil authorities (“Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel”), by religious leaders (“Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest”) and by the population as a whole (“the whole remnant of the people”).
Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching) Page 46